With bitcoin potentially going to have some problems soon.Due to the possible split. Should we be concerned about poker sites being hit hard by the devaluation.Since they are dealing heavily in bitcoin these days.
Could some go down? Leaving a players with money on sites SOL.
I have this same concern. The only reason I mess with buttcoins at all is to gamble with. I'd rather play online blackjack than weather the volatility of btc. But for the online casinos/poker rooms that take bitcoin, it's an invaluable tool to deposit/withdraw. I hope it doesn't go dd.
Whats happening is exactly the nightmare scenario for any poker/gambling site using bitcoin.. Now the problem is minimal if they are using the hard valuation of something like 1 credit/coin on a site is .001 bitcoin so their bankroll is tied only to Bitcoins thus devaluation doesn't change for the site one bit.. I believe its how SwC ran things and still does.. a hard fixed value on chips at 1 mBTC with ability to go 2 decimal places to hold valuation..
Going back to what Druff mentioned awhile back Sites have been known to slow down withdrawals sometimes if a drop happens because heres the problem.. Bitcoin values continue to rise the site benefits from doing an on site exchange for BTC based on current price as long as it holds or even ideally goes up the site is actually making profit on the BTC they are taking in because lets say somebody deposits 1BTC and its $1000.00 and thus person has $1000.00 to play poker, gamble etc.. The value of BTC rises to say $1500 each and the person wants ot cash out.. Now the site only has to pay them back .667 BTC basically to payback evenly and the site has made .333 BTC profit which if the value holds or rises say to $2000.00 each they've turned .33 or $500 of free profit initially into another $160..
Problem is BTC is dropping so now just based on current prices Poker Site has segregated player funds taken in of 1BTC at the time they deposited well now that its at $900 suddenly the site has to pay back 1.1BTC to the customer if they W/D that $1000 later on they had deposited.. Long and short is the site is potentially going to hemorrhage money because the player balances become worth less and less then what they deposited.. Now a smart owner is going to hopefully have enough sense to cover some potential losses somehow be it setting aside half the rake as insurance against BTC deflation and its a bigger issue for poker sites vs gambling sites Id guess because I know (having looked into the costs p otentially) an online casino owner can rapidly go into the backoffice and drop the pct returns on say video slots down from 97 to 95 92% or whatever to increase player losses to offset.. Harder to do with poker as the income generator is the players playing games and the rake collected from them while playing cash or tournaments.. Too much rake can cut into player churn potentially or losses that are unsustainable..
Id planned and may still get a paid online site going offshore not gonna hide it I have the domains even. Had script quote for BTC for literally automated deposits and withdrawals (with a built in safety to stop money laundering if somebody is depositing then trying to insta WD after they deposit and essentially using the site to launder their coins).
The fork issue however has me putting my plans on hold (not to mention as Druff brought up on the radio show briefly some serious acute health issues he knew about of mine from FB, this past week one of which now may land me in the Hospital admitted due to having an MDRO Infection (multi drug resistant organism) aka Superbug which has limited vulnerability to one oral antibiotic and the IV option which would become necessary if I get worse could actually cause more kidney issues then I already have (the old the cure/treatment could kill the infection and still cause kidney damage of its own which sucks for somebody whos diabetic and already at risk).. Put the process and plans on hold until the fork issue is resolved one way or the other as the risk/reward ratio is too skewed right now..